Yeap...Seafood....
About a week ago the President of Safeway Perishables Department challenged me (Toni) to provide recommendations to him, his EVP, SVP, and VP to turn around their seafood sales.
Well...you know...I know NOTHING about seafood...except that I love eating it! So I gathered a team together of fellow Daymon associates around the world to help me out. Then I decided to go on a market visit to learn about seafood in the stores. This past Thursday and Friday I was in Seattle and Portland checking out the Safeway stores and their competition (Fred Meyer, QFC, Albertson, WinCo, Costco, etc). Dan, on my team, went to Baltimore, Philly, and Texas to do the same.
Tomorrow I'm off to Denver. Dan is off to LA then Pheonix. We're learning a lot.
One big learning for me...sustainability! There is a HUGE focus on sourcing from sustainable oceas, rivers, or farms then selling sustainable product (meaning not having any fish be thrown away). Did you know...all fisherman have a quota which they cannot go over to help maintain the fish population? Did you know that the Russian "underground mafia/government" paid crab fisherman extra to fish crab beyond their quota to spur the Russian economy last year so crab coming from the Russian Sea are now DEPLETED...so that causes the world supplier to be squelched and therefore the cost of crab has skyrocketed over the past 6 months? Did you know that the Thailand government has guaranteed their fisherman certain dollar amount per day no matter how many fish they catch...so many fisherman are fishing less to keep the supply and demand in check...they have no incentive to fish for more...therefore costs of shrimp and other fish have skyrocketed? Did you know that Copper River Salmon (famous delicious Salmon that only have 4 - 8 week season ...which is right now) supply is low this season as the Salmon are not swimming from the ocean to the Copper River due to the enviroment (either the river is too cold or too warm...haven't figured that out yet). Anyway, I'm learning alot! It's amazing how the enviroment/mother nature really affect the supply of fish.
Next learning is to study to consumer buying, cooking, and eating behavior to try to connect some suggestions...it should be interesting!
This picture is of a Safeway Seafood Manager at Seattle Safeway. She's worked for Safeway for 20 years, loves her job, and makes $18/hour. She's worried about the economy as it's difficult for her to pay for gas these days. Her employee's are now taking public transportation to work. Her customers are "trading down" (meaning now buying as expensive fish but now buying less expensive seafood or moving from seafood to poultry) as they cannot afford certain species of fish.
Stay Tuned!
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